Texas House takes step toward $2 bln water infrastructure plan

March 27, 2013|Reuters

By Corrie MacLaggan

AUSTIN, Texas, March 27 (Reuters) - The Texas House ofRepresentatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill thatwould create a fund to finance water infrastructure projects ina state suffering from two years of widespread drought.

The House passed the bill along to the Senate on a vote of146-2. The measure sets up a system for Texas to provide loansfor projects such as reservoirs, wells and conservation efforts.The bill's author has a separate proposal to draw $2 billionfrom the state's rainy-day fund to help finance the loans.

"As Mother Nature has reminded us in the last several years,we cannot change the weather, but with sound science andfar-sighted planning, we can conserve and develop supply to meetour future demands," Republican Representative Allan Ritter, thebill's author and chairman of the House Natural ResourcesCommittee, told his colleagues.

Many Texans, including the governor and the TexasAssociation of Business, support tapping the rainy day fund forwater projects.

For the past two years, at least half of Texas has been indrought, and 85 percent of the state is in drought now, saidstate climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon. In 2011, the stateexperienced its driest year on record, according to the NationalWeather Service. Cities such as San Angelo in West Texas haveimposed emergency restrictions on water use.

The proposal is based on a 2012 state water plan that saidthat "in serious drought conditions, Texas does not and will nothave enough water to meet the needs of its people, itsbusinesses, and its agricultural enterprises." The planidentified hundreds of needed projects that would cost $53billion to design and construct in the next 50 years.

City water providers will need nearly $27 billion infinancial assistance from the state to implement the projects,the plan said. The proposed fund would provide that amount overtime with the help of the one-time withdrawal from the rainy-dayfund along with $6 billion in general obligation bondsauthorized by Texas voters for water in 2011.

The state's rainy-day fund, generated mostly from oil andgas production taxes, is projected to have $11.8 billion by theend of the 2014-2015 budget cycle, state comptroller Susan Combssaid earlier this year.

Not all Texans believe the rainy-day fund is the place to gofor funding water projects.

Arlene Wohlgemuth, executive director of the Texas PublicPolicy Foundation, which advocates for limited government, saidshe does not think the money for water projects should come fromthe rainy-day fund.

"We agree that Texas needs greater and more reliablesupplies of water to sustain its growth and industry," she saidin a statement. But she objected to the proposal earmarkingmoney for environmental education and conservation, "neither ofwhich is guaranteed to expand the available supply of water inTexas."

Earlier this year, Republican Governor Rick Perry called onlawmakers to tap Texas' rainy-day fund for water andtransportation projects, saying that "none of us can deny theneed for these improvements."

"Whenever we're recruiting a business seeking to relocate orexpand, a chief concern of theirs is ensuring there are adequatewater, power and transportation systems for their needs," Perrysaid in prepared remarks for his state of the state address.

On the House floor on Wednesday, the remarks by the pastorof the day included this prayer: "Lord, give us rain."